October 6, 2024
Reading: Exodus 9:13-10:20
Focus: Exodus 10:1-2 – Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the Lord.”
Father God, Thank You again for Your daily mercies. Help us to see when You are working in our lives. Help us to pay attention to those who bring a message from You. In Jesus Name. Amen.
We have worked our way through six plagues. The only indication of time frame that we have is that seven days passed after God struck the Nile. I have read that some scholars think the time from the Nile turning to blood to the deaths of the first born was 40 days. God is kind of partial to 40 days, so who knows. At any rate, time waits for no man. Pharaoh was just a man, and he was running out of time. One of these days, Pharaoh will let the Israelites go, he just doesn’t realize it yet.
OK, the seventh plague is burning hail. Hail, by itself, is bad enough but burning hail? Only God can make ice burn. We had a hailstorm earlier this year and our cars had dents from the hailstones. And the patio cover was also beaten up. You could look up at it and see the dents. If you have never experienced a hailstorm, it is definitely an experience. Hail stones are noisy and can be painful if you get hit by one. They can be as small as a pea, or as large as a softball. The world’s record hailstone fell in South Dakota. It was 8 inches in diameter.
God told Moses and Aaron to get up early and go to Pharaoh. They were to ask again that Pharaoh let the Israelites go. They were also to inform him what would happen if he did not. The warning included the declaration that “ . . . For by now I could have stretched out my hand and struck you and your people with a plague that would have wiped you off the earth. But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” (Exodus 9:15-16). God declares His mercy to Pharaoh and the Egyptians. He is also telling Pharaoh that his resistance is futile.
The gods of Egypt that were proven false were the gods of the sky, storms and atmosphere. Among those gods were Nut and Seth. Nut was one of the most loved goddesses. She was goddess of the sky and all heavenly bodies. Seth was the god of chaos, war and storms. God showed Pharaoh and the Egyptians that there was no god like the God of the Israelites. None of the gods of the air, storms or sky could prevent what God sent on Egypt.
In this warning, God again demonstrates His mercy. God tells the Egyptians to move their livestock into shelter so that they can be spared what is coming. The Bible tells is that there were officials of Pharaoh who feared the word of the Lord (Exodus 9:20) and they hurried to protect their livestock. Still others ignored the warning completely. There is now a division between Egyptians who believed that God was more powerful that the gods of Egypt and those, including Pharaoh, who refused to believe it. God told Moses to stretch his hand toward the sky so that the hail would fall on all of Egypt. God sent thunder, lightning and hail. Exodus 9:24 tells us that it was the worst storm Egypt had ever seen. And this was not any ordinary hail. There was fire mingled with the hail. (Exodus 9:24 KJV). The hail struck and killed people and animals out in the field, beat down every growing thing, and stripped every tree. Again, in the Land of Goshen, where the Israelites lived, the hail did not fall.
Even in this, God was not without mercy. The crops destroyed were flax and barley. Crops that provided clothing and beer. Crops like wheat and spelt (a grain similar to wheat), which provided food for the Egyptians, were spared. This gave the Egyptians another chance to turn to the “One True God.”
This plague apparently shook Pharaoh. He had to have been very miserable to swallow his pride again, and call Moses and Aaron and say, “This time I have sinned.” He admitted the Lord was right and that he and his people were wrong. (Exodus 9:27) He asked Moses to pray because they had had enough thunder and hail. He says the Israelites could go. Moses left the city and prayed for an end to the plague which had completely destroyed the crops in the fields. Once the thunder and hail stopped, Pharaoh sinned again. He AND his officials hardened their hearts and, again, refused to let the Israelites leave. No surprise there.
God’s mercy in leaving food crops was disregarded by Pharaoh as mercy. But the refusal to let the Israelites go would jeopardize even this. God told Moses that He had hardened Pharaoh’s heart. Now the Bible says that Pharaoh hardened his heart. Both are true and they are mutually exclusive. God is now allowing Pharaoh to have what he wanted, a hard heart against God and His people.
God’s instructions to Moses include the promise that he will be able to tell generations to come how God had dealt with the Egyptians and the signs which were done so that all may know that HE IS GOD. God’s work was not just for the Israelites of that generation but for generations to come. And not just for the Israelites but for the Egyptians as well. Moses tells Pharaoh that God asks, “How long will you refuse to humble yourself before Me?” The request to let the Israelites go was made, again and refused, again. Pharaoh is warned that his destruction was not over. Pharaoh was having none of it. But even his servants knew they were done for. They begged Pharaoh to let just them men go. That might suffice.
Pharaoh asked just who would be going to worship this God of theirs. Moses and Aaron told him that all, young and old, male and female, and all their animals would go to worship God. Pharaoh tried to bargain with God. He told Moses once before that only the men could go and for only a day. But this time, to make sure that the men returned Pharaoh intended to keep the women and children as hostage. But God is not to be bargained with. That Pharaoh wanted to make a deal with God shows us that he still didn’t know who He was, in spite of the fact that God had proven He was greater than the Egyptian gods. Moses and Aaron had warned Pharaoh what was coming next, but still he refused and he threw them out of the palace, not wanting anymore to do with them.
The next plague was locusts. More bugs. God told Moses to stretch out his hand over the land for the locusts to come and eat everything, including the food crops, that had been left by the hail. Pharaoh had been told that the locusts would fill the land, their houses, the houses of the servants and there would be so many that one would not even be able to see the ground for the locusts. The next morning, the east wind brought the locust on Egypt. The Bible tells us that these locusts had never been by man before or since. The clouds of locusts darkened the skies like heavy clouds. And they ate everything! Down to the ground.
The Egyptian god, Neper was the protector of crops. Neper held significant influence over agricultural affairs and the prosperity of farms. Shu was god of the air. Shu was considered to the be very essence of air, wind and light. Neither god could protect Egypt from the power of the “One True God”.
The biggest takeaway from the plagues is the realization that sin brings consequences. Speeding gets a ticket. Robbery gets jail time. Some believe that they will never get caught. Sometimes that can be true in this world. But sooner or later, be sure your sin will find you out. Anyone who watches cold case documentaries will see that crimes can be solved, and criminals can be caught decades after the crime. There are those who think they have gotten away with their sin and may never be caught by man. But there is One who sees what is done in secret. Judgement will come for all, be it here or in eternity. No sin ever goes unpunished.
However, those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, will stand before God knowing that our sin has been paid for and the consequences are no longer ours to bear. Jesus did that on the cross. The eternal God, in human form, died on the cross to pay the penalty that God decreed for sin, for all time. One only has to believe that we are sinners, that Jesus bled and died for those sins, that He descended into hell and took the keys of death and hell from Satan, that He rose again from the dead. And, even now, sits at the right hand of God interceding for us. I’m not talking a ‘get me out of trouble’ belief. I am talking a change of heart, a change of priority, a change of direction.
Is your repentance real?
Father God, Thank You for Your mercies. Help us to truly repent of our sins. Help us to turn from those ways. Help us to not forget our repentance. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Food for Thought
- Do you believe that the plagues were acts of God or natural events? Why or why not?
- How does God work in your life? Has He allowed hardship to remind you who He is? What did you learn?
- Are there things in your life that are hidden? Do you need to ask God for forgiveness? What are you going to do?
- Do you believe that God takes a very real interest in our lives? Why or why not?
- Do you think that the Egyptians were divided in the belief that God was truly God? Why or why not?
